has cork city been ruined by bike lanes?

Bacchus

TheChizler wrote: »

Probably a bit late into the process but I'm not sure it's been pointed out here before. A pretty comprehensive set of drawings outlining the plans provided by irishcycle here. You can see where all the planned warning signs etc are. These are just tender drawings but I think they're pretty close to the finalised set.

Nice find, not seen that here before.

The maps look like what has mostly been done already. It's hard to get a sense though of how connected the routes are intended to be though, feels like there's bits missing to the plan. Maybe there are some "phase II" plans that have not been released.

The new bike scheme looks great though. I like the 6 "artist impression" photos in the montage.

jabberwock

kampik wrote: »

I don't mean that bit, it's all the way from BierHouse. Tiny circle signs with arrows.

Aah right, you mean the yellow indicators at the start of each little curb thing. That's telling cars to start to the right, not telling bikes to get out.

Dave47

jaysus motorists are going to hate cork city even more so in a few years. Won't be cycling around UCC myself while that 205 bus is flying around the place.

kampik

jabberwock wrote: »

Aah right, you mean the yellow indicators at the start of each little curb thing. That's telling cars to start to the right, not telling bikes to get out.

First I thought you were right, but after coming from town I don't think so. The little arrows are for cyclist. They are in both directions. If they go with the right flow, they point into the lane and if not then they point out of the cycle lane.
There is no reason to have signs for cars in one way street in the opposite direction
So as I said before, somebody changed his mind about Pope's quay cycle lane and made it two way.

jabberwock

kampik wrote: »

First I thought you were right, but after coming from town I don't think so. The little arrows are for cyclist. They are in both directions. If they go with the right flow, they point into the lane and if not then they point out of the cycle lane.
There is no reason to have signs for cars in one way street in the opposite direction
So as I said before, somebody changed his mind about Pope's quay cycle lane and made it two way.

It's had a 2 way system planned since the start. Those signs you are on about have been on those plans as well. I live smack bang in the middle of the section that you are talking about.

kampik

jabberwock wrote: »

It's had a 2 way system planned since the start. Those signs you are on about have been on those plans as well. I live smack bang in the middle of the section that you are talking about.

That doesn't mean that the signs are right I hope we can agree that the sign is for cyclist. I don't want to flood this thread with some minor thing.

Pitcairn

A long way to go until we are like Copenhagen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBhPrwhVbzQ

Bacchus

Pitcairn wrote: »

A long way to go until we are like Copenhagen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBhPrwhVbzQ

That's cool, great innovations there and an example for other cities to follow.

TheChizler

Been using the new lanes quite a bit, they can be a bit confusing when they suddenly end in the middle of a footpath or need extra attention when you're crossing a street entrance, and I'm not in the habit of incorporating them into my route planning yet, but that will all come with time.

Finding the popes quay one especially handy, cuts a load of time off my journey when heading east.

Harry Angstrom

As far as I'm concerned, the new cycle lanes have become a pain in the arse for me. Over the past couple of weeks, I've had motorists shout at me to use the cycle lane on the South Main Street, despite the fact that:

(A) The cycle lane on the South Main Street is a contra-flow lane.

(B) I've been cycling up the left-hand side of the South Main Street with the intention of going on towards Douglas Street.

(C) Cyclists are not under any legal obligation to use cycle lanes.

Thankfully I caught up with these fcukers at the traffic lights on South Main Street/Sullivan's Quay and told them what's what. It's amazing how quiet they become when their metal machines are stationary and they actually have to try to justify their bullsh!t.

TheChizler

Harry Angstrom wrote: »

As far as I'm concerned, the new cycle lanes have become a pain in the arse for me. Over the past couple of weeks, I've had motorists shout at me to use the cycle lane on the South Main Street, despite the fact that:

(A) The cycle lane on the South Main Street is a contra-flow lane.

That's unfortunate. I haven't used it yet but I was wondering would that be an issue here, and Proby's/Sullivan's quay. Glad you pointed it out to them. Did you also point out the parked cars?

(C) Cyclists are not under any legal obligation to use cycle lanes.

Just on a technicality, which I'm sure you're aware of, you do if they're contra flow, and of course you're travelling contra flow.

Most of the new lanes have been installed in contra-flow orientations, so I hope that they will be used correctly.

Harry Angstrom

TheChizler wrote: »

Just on a technicality, which I'm sure you're aware of, you do if they're contra flow, and of course you're travelling contra flow.

Unless a cyclist has a death-wish, they wouldn't cycle down South Main Street towards the city centre without using the contra-flow cycle lane

My problem is that I'm cycling with traffic on South Main Street, going towards Douglas Street so I have no need to use the cycle lane, yet a taxi driver called me out on it, and a stupid German called me out on it as well. It gave me great pleasure to have a few words with them once I caught up with them at the traffic lights.

Malari

What annoys me is the cyclists going contra-contra flow in the contra-flow lanes.

Bacchus

Harry Angstrom wrote: »

As far as I'm concerned, the new cycle lanes have become a pain in the arse for me. Over the past couple of weeks, I've had motorists shout at me to use the cycle lane on the South Main Street, despite the fact that:

(A) The cycle lane on the South Main Street is a contra-flow lane.

(B) I've been cycling up the left-hand side of the South Main Street with the intention of going on towards Douglas Street.

(C) Cyclists are not under any legal obligation to use cycle lanes.

I've thought this before alright, I've wondered "why is that cyclist not using the lane?" and later realised they were contra flow. It's not immediately obvious to drivers that this is the case, not that that is an excuse for shouting at someone.

Harry Angstrom wrote: »

Thankfully I caught up with these fcukers at the traffic lights on South Main Street/Sullivan's Quay and told them what's what. It's amazing how quiet they become when their metal machines are stationary and they actually have to try to justify their bullsh!t.

They're called cars. The bigger ones are called vans.

pwurple

Bacchus wrote: »

They're called cars. The bigger ones are called vans.

Whoooooosh!!!!

Or if you are a motorcyclist, they are called cages.

Has anyone gone through the city using a satnav recently? I turned one on out of curiosity recently... Talk about recipe for disaster. I really feel sorry for any tourist in a rental car in the city these days.

Censorsh!t

The new cycling lanes on Washington street and over on Pope's Quay (?) are a bit mad, messing up lanes.

And on the other side of the city there's no bike lanes. I cycle in from Glanmire and am ****ting it trying to go through traffic, so I usually end up walking my bike on the footpaths. Buses have no regard for cyclists, one even almost nudged me out of the cycling area of the traffic lights before.

I think they should make underground tunnels, that's be easier :P

TheChizler

Censorsh!t wrote: »

And on the other side of the city there's no bike lanes. I cycle in from Glanmire and am ****ting it trying to go through traffic, so I usually end up walking my bike on the footpaths. Buses have no regard for cyclists, one even almost nudged me out of the cycling area of the traffic lights before.

They're mostly contra-flow on one way streets, outside of the city centre one way streets are relatively rare.

Harry Angstrom

TheChizler wrote: »

They're mostly contra-flow on one way streets, outside of the city centre one way streets are relatively rare.

I've lost count of the number of times I've seen motorists making a right turn from Sullivan's Quay onto the South Main Street

Dannyboy83

UPDATE;

1 year on, Pope's Quay layout will be restored to original

http://www.eveningecho.ie/cork-news/new-bike-lane-causing-traffic-delays/
in City Hall last night councillors said the new system with just one lane is not working and it was time to rectify it.
Fianna Fáil councillor Sean Martin said that when something clearly isn’t working you have to accept it and fix it as quickly as possible.
“You can be delayed right back to the church some days. You have people going up to Shandon, out to Sunday’s Well or across the bridge towards the Mercy or back up to the Coal Quay and all served by a single lane from Pope’s Quay, it doesn’t work,” he said.
“It was obvious before the bike lane was finished that this was going to cause problems and it should have been fixed while the contractor was still on site.”
Fianna Fáil councillor Tony Fitzgerald said the local knowledge of councillors should have been heeded and it was clear that removing a busy land for a cycle lane was going to cause trouble.
Sinn Fein councillor Thomas Gould said Pope’s Quay was an example of how local government sometimes does not work. “It’s the one thing that all councillors know, you need two lanes. We are not against the bikes but this traffic delays cannot continue,” he said.
“It’s now going to cost tens of thousands to put back in second lane that we knew shouldn’t have been removed in the first place.”

Further changes are expected to follow.

Good to see problems being corrected, but the loss of these funds further reduces the possibility of a badly needed orbital road for Cork.

darkdubh

Whatever about cycle lanes I'm sick to the teeth of cyclists breaking red lights.Several times I've had near misses with the feckers flying straight through them without slowing down for a second.

TheChizler

Dannyboy83 wrote: »

UPDATE;

1 year on, Pope's Quay layout will be restored to original


Further changes are expected to follow.

Good to see problems being corrected, but the loss of these funds further reduces the possibility of a badly needed orbital road for Cork.

Was traffic bad there? Lived in Sundays Well for a year and never had much trouble queueing on Pope's Quay since the changes.

monument

Dannyboy83 wrote: »

UPDATE;

1 year on, Pope's Quay layout will be restored to original

Did I misread the article? Where in the article is that actually said?

It has councilors with mixed views and city officals saying to that these things take time for some to get used to them. Nothing much more than that.

Knasher

TheChizler wrote: »

Was traffic bad there? Lived in Sundays Well for a year and never had much trouble queueing on Pope's Quay since the changes.

I live on Popes Quay, and really I don't think it has made much of a difference. It looks to be much harder to find a parking space on the street now, as the ones there seem filled the vast majority of the time. And the fire brigade can't use it any more. But after that is seems about the same as it usually is. On an individual level I'd say it does make a big difference to the people who are travelling up Sundays Well and Blarney St, the majority of the traffic turns over the bridge and people heading in those directions could skip a lot of that, whereas now you need to queue. There was never that much traffic going up those two streets from Popes Quay, which is why the fire brigade used to favour it so much, they would get all the way to the end and there would be only 2 or 3 cars waiting for the traffic lights in front of them.

Dannyboy83

TheChizler wrote: »

Was traffic bad there? Lived in Sundays Well for a year and never had much trouble queueing on Pope's Quay since the changes.

Don't know what it's been like recently, luckily I have been able to avoid the city for the last 2 months.

Prior to that, it was a huge bottleneck, there were daily queues at 6.30am since last year, especially when there were heavy vehicles. (a terribly timed light didn't help)

That's not really a big deal - but the lawbreaking as a consequence was.
People would fly down the left turning lane and then cut into the other lane, in order attempt to skip traffic, and frequently ignored red lights.
It was quite stressful tbh. (this was on a daily basis btw)

Paz-CCFC

But isn't the whole point of the cycle lane to get less people using cars in the city centre and more using bikes, to reduce overall driving levels? If you take it out, then you're creating a less safe environment for cyclists and giving people more reason to use cars, thus increasing the overall traffic levels. It might increase traffic initially, but in the long term, it'll be an incentive to get more people cycling. That's a good thing for traffic (look at how much space the equivalent number of cars take up vs bicycles), public health (the more people exercising regularly, the less cost it'll put on our health service) and the environment (we're working to get our carbon emissions down to a certain level).

There are two Bike Share docking stations along that stretch of road, which are suited perfectly to a segregated cycle lane. I would imagine that both the placing of the stations and the building of the lane were done with each other in mind, so I don't think it'd be beneficial taking that away. It would mean that Bike Share users wouldn't be able to travel contra-flow, as they can now, so they'd have to come back along the North Gate Bridge and up along to get to Patricks Street/Parnell Place etc. Forces all cyclists from Sundays Well and the walkway coming from the Mardyke Walk to go across the North Gate Bridge, as well. As a motorist, wouldn't it be better for cyclists to be in the segregated cycle lanes, rather than in front of the car? Especially if it's a novice cyclist, which would be more likely to use these kind of lanes/the Bike Share scheme.

Subpopulus

I'd be astonished if the City Council were able to get a second lane reinstated as it would completely cut off access to the contra-flow lane from the west, and largely negate the entire purpose of putting the lanes in there in the first place. The reason the lanes were built was to allow cyclists cycle west-east along the keys. Put a second turning lane in and you can't do that any more. So then you wouldn't be able to cycle along the north quay because a 15m stretch of the quay was needed to provide a turning lane for motorists. As other have pointed out, the traffic doesn't seem to have dramatically worsened there anyhow.

Bonus points for the 'We are not against the bikes but...' from Thomas Gould.

SomeFool

darkdubh wrote: »

Whatever about cycle lanes I'm sick to the teeth of cyclists breaking red lights.Several times I've had near misses with the feckers flying straight through them without slowing down for a second.

Indeed, I understand the correct technique is to attempt to sneak through......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxOv-g65HD8

opus

Knasher wrote: »

I live on Popes Quay, and really I don't think it has made much of a difference. It looks to be much harder to find a parking space on the street now, as the ones there seem filled the vast majority of the time. And the fire brigade can't use it any more. But after that is seems about the same as it usually is. On an individual level I'd say it does make a big difference to the people who are travelling up Sundays Well and Blarney St, the majority of the traffic turns over the bridge and people heading in those directions could skip a lot of that, whereas now you need to queue. There was never that much traffic going up those two streets from Popes Quay, which is why the fire brigade used to favour it so much, they would get all the way to the end and there would be only 2 or 3 cars waiting for the traffic lights in front of them.

I live just round the corner, up Shandon St a bit and then off it again but thankfully I cycle a lot more than I drive. Driving down Pope's Quay is slow for sure if you hit it at the wrong time but you can always drive on the other side of the river to avoid it as needed.

The cycle lanes were there when I moved to the area so can't say how much of a delay they've introduced.

cgcsb

Shocking that the City Council is actually getting rid of a cycle lane to appease motorists. I suppose Cork still does have some small town mentality, in the council anyway. Meanwhile Dublin City Council is setting about reducing road space available to motorists.

monument

cgcsb wrote: »

Shocking that the City Council is actually getting rid of a cycle lane to appease motorists. I suppose Cork still does have some small town mentality, in the council anyway. Meanwhile Dublin City Council is setting about reducing road space available to motorists.

I don't think the city are removing it -- what the poster said does not match the article.